Leinster sneak through

Harlequins 5 Leinster 6

On Easter Day, I watched Pope Benedict give his Urbi et Orbi address from Rome. He looked in good shape but his voice rather frail, although, admittedly, it has never been particularly strong.

In the afternoon, I visited the Duke of Hamilton pub in Hampstead to watch Harlequins take on Leinster in the Quarter Final of the Heineken Cup. What a fabulous game! What a shame about the result. Harlequins played their socks off in the attack but Leinster's defence was just superb, being breached only once. Unfortunately, Quins were not able to convert the try so it meant that Leinster's two first half penalties were the difference between the two sides.

Of the Quins players, Danny Care was, as they say, absolutely 'massive'. He has to be a serious consideration for the Lions tour to South Africa this summer. Nick Easter could have been the Zero of the day when he got sin binned for, I think, deliberately knocking on. Fortunately, Leinster were not able to score any points during Easter's ten minutes out of the game. Heroes were David Strettle and Ugo Monye who together stopped Leinster from scoring a try despite crossing the try line - Monye helped bring the Leinster player down and Strettle made sure that he got his body underneath the Leinster man's so that he could not ground the ball. Phew.

Harlequins are now out of the tournament, but, given how Munster demolished no less a side than Ospreys 43 - 9, perhaps we should be glad! Next year, however, I see no reason to believe that Harlequins can't come back to the Heineken Cup stronger than ever before.